My apologies to anyone expecting to pick this up and get a quick fix. To understand what's going on you'll need to revisit earlier episodes.
As ever, any resemblance to persons living or dead is co-incidental. Constructive criticism is very welcome.
Recap
In "The Girl With Pink Hair: Pt 4" Elena and Jess meet with Alan Forrester, an agent for the Centrist faction of the Folk. The girls are both attracted to Alan and the meeting at the loft progresses to an evening of physical pleasure. After Alan falls asleep, Jess acts to try and entangle him with Elena, which would reduce his effectiveness as an agent for his clique. However, it seems no intervention is necessary. When Alan wakes, he is horrified as his real motive for meeting Jess and Elena was to investigate whether they were the precursor to the re-enactment of a powerful and dangerous myth. Now that he is entangled with Elena - and through her with Jess - they are one step closer to becoming the Trinity which is itself only one step away from the focus of the myth.
Elena is furious with Jess as she suspects her of being underhand, something she promised she would never do to Elena. Jess protests her innocence and during the resolution of the argument, Elena comes into her Talent. Her latent ability has been the source of previous otherworldly events. Now Alan and Jess must try to teach Elena control while avoiding being completely overwhelmed by the myth.
Unfortunately, events overtake them.
***
I've got a girlfriend ...
The loft 11am, 30
th
May
The loft was bedlam. Jess and Alan hurried to secure whatever they thought necessary, and Elena tried to stay out of their way. She started for the door only for Alan to take her by the arm.
"You can't leave, even for a moment. We have to be out of here in the next few minutes, so we need to have line of sight at all times. Trust me."
Trust again, Elena thought. That was becoming a very precious commodity.
"Who sent you the message?" she asked.
"Family," he replied, tersely. "I hope they covered their tracks."
Family in the espionage business? How could that be? Unless ... unless they were working with very small numbers! They called themselves The Folk, the latter word derived from
Proto-Germanic
, literally meaning 'kin' - like in 'kinfolk' - which analytical brain's pedantry utility observed was a tautology. Elena hissed and shook her head.
Not now!
The pedantry function was taken offline.
Her mind worked furiously. Did the need to reinforce the genes make the extended family the critical unit? Was this less like a nation state and more a loose federation of tribes with shifting allegiances?
And the incidence of Talent in the general population must be quite low or the Folk would be directly or indirectly running things. In which case, the espionage must amount to no more than a shoestring operation of surveillance, harvesting gossip and - what did Jess call it? - oh, yes, 'nudging'.
Elena cursed herself for being blindsided by this. The last few months had lulled her into complacency. As she processed her conclusions, she busied herself getting a few basics from the kitchen and then stood staring at them wondering how she was going to carry it all.
"Where can we go?" Jess shouted as she pulled out handfuls of clothes and threw them into two suitcases. At the back of a drawer was a small, gift-wrapped box. She looked at it briefly, that moment would come. It arced into a suitcase, following the clothes.
"I don't know!" Alan shouted back. "All my assets are compromised now and yours too. I can't use my car, it'll be tracked."
Elena had an idea. "I'll get a cab. They can't have taken over my phone yet, they don't have the capacity."
Alan stopped what he was doing. "How do you know that?"
"You were sent here to investigate me, but until a couple of hours ago I was just some local oddity. There can't be enough of you to run a proper surveillance operation, otherwise why send a valuable asset like you?"
Now Jess hesitated, and she and Alan exchanged glances. "Where do you suggest we go?"
"Take the taxi to the swimming pool. It's a possible normal destination for us but then it's a five minute walk from there to Sanjay and the others. They can't be part of the picture yet, either. We can take stock then."
There was an infinitesimal pause, then Alan walked over, took her face in his hands, and kissed her soundly.
"Brilliant."
***
On the way out, they encountered Sylvie in the hall. She surveyed their appearance and the suitcases and looked at Alan in obvious query.
"Going somewhere?"
Jess dropped the suitcase she was carrying and took Sylvie by the hand. "Oh, I'm so glad I caught you!"
Sylvie smiled in confusion, "You could always have texted me."
"No, I couldn't. We can't use our phones."
Now Sylvie's eyebrows climbed. "Are you in trouble?"
Alan frowned and Jess said without looking round, "She's a friend, Alan, and I'm going to trust her with what I'm about to tell her."
"Tell me what?" Sylvie asked. She gave off hues of concern more than alarm or worry and Alan relaxed a little.
"We're going to have to disappear for a bit and you can't tell anyone anything about us, especially people claiming to be from the police or security services or the government or anyone!" Jess finished in a rush.
"I ...
see
," Sylvie said, slowly.
"Moreover, they'll try to influence you," Elena added.
She laughed, "I'm too well off to take bribes!"
Jess squeezed her hand. "It won't be that kind of influence. I think you already have an idea of what I can do. My magic you called it. I wish we had more time, but this is going to have to do. I want you to concentrate on your emotions, how you feel."
Sylvie looked uncertain and Elena chipped in for reassurance. "It's weird but you have to have the tools to deal with it."
Jess dragged Sylvie's attention back to herself. "They're going to try to lessen your suspicion and make you more inclined to trust them."
"They?"
"The people that will come looking for us. Are you ready? When they do, it will feel like this."
Jess reached out to massage Sylvie's feelings. The other woman's eyes widened. "Holy fuck! What are you doing?"
"What they'll try to do to get you to co-operate. If you feel it, tell them to stop and they will. It only works if you don't realise what's going on. And no, before you ask, other than just now, I've never done this to you."
Sylvie was silent as she tried to process the abrupt reframing of her two friends and their new companion as fugitives with mind powers.
"Taxi's here," Elena said, urgently. "We've gotta go. Keep our room for us Sylvie. We will be back."
Her voice firmed towards the end and Alan and Jess looked at each other. Elena was making a promise and some of the Queen's authority infused her words. Sylvie nodded and her chin came up.
"Take care."
***
Senate Row 2pm, 30
th
May
They ditched their smartphones in the rubbish bin outside the swimming pool and made their way up the busy street to where Senate Row branched off. Another hundred metres found them standing on the pavement outside the nest of the Unholy Trinity. Jess and Elena recalled the pet name for the three friends inside and exchanged unhappy glances at its newly unpleasant resonance.
Another two houses in the terrace separated the Unholy Trinity residence from the wall at the end of the lane which was the boundary to the cemetery. It was serenely quiet with only the distant sound of the busy thoroughfare behind them to disturb the peace. Elena glanced up at the sky in a way that wasn't quite a plea from an empiricist, and prayed that at least one of the three would be in. And conscious.
The door latch clicked and a yawning Sanjay, clad only in a pair of blue plaid boxer shorts, opened the door only for them all to push past him into the hall. Alison stood astonished in the doorway to the kitchen. Seconds later Merry appeared and looked over Alison's shoulder.
"What are you doing here? And who's that?" she said, staring at Alan.
"Alan, he's ..." Elena stalled, as trying to explain Alan needed more explanation than they had time for. In spite of their situation, Jess widened her eyes and Elena could feel herself blushing.
"... he's ... with us. Like that," she finished awkwardly.
"Where do you find them, Elena?" Merry asked. "One minute you tell me you haven't been laid in months and then you turn up with two of the most beautiful people I've ever seen!"
Elena put her hands through her hair, where to start?
"We need a place to lay low for a while," Jess intervened.
"Lay low? How wonderful! Like you're on the run! Are you in trouble? What have you done? What's going on?" said other three in no particular order and mostly at the same time.
Elena held up her hands to quiet them. "We are being, um,
pursued
. We think. Because of something we've done. Which wasn't illegal but has probably made us a target for Jess and Alan's former employers. And maybe some less savoury characters."
Merry put her hands on her hips. "That makes no sense. You're a waitress, Jess."
Elena shook her head in frustration. "I'd like to explain everything, but it'd take too long. For now we need to disappear until we can find out more about what kind of mess we're in, and who exactly is after us."
Merry and Alison looked sceptical. Help arrived from an unexpected quarter.
"My father has a house in the Brecon Beacons. It's quite isolated," Sanjay said.
"Dear God, no!" Alan gasped.
Sanjay was taken aback. "It's not that bad," he laughed. "There's running water and the internet and everything!"
Alan shook his head and tried to explain. "It's not that, it's just that the Arthurian myth is all through that area. We'd be better off going to ground somewhere like Dartford. There's not much majesty in Dartford."
